In spite of the many recent advances in information technology, live, in-person interviews are still required for job applicants, university applicants, and the like. In-person interviews suffer from many drawbacks. They require scheduling (and often rescheduling) that must take into account office hours, travel time, and time zones, with a constant risk of cancellations and delays. They also are prone to unintended variation (e.g., by asking the same questions in different ways that elicit different responses) and bias (e.g., disfavoring candidates interviewed when the interviewer is tired). Further, in-person interviews tend not to be recorded or remembered accurately.
A common example of how technology can facilitate meetings that would otherwise not be possible to conduct in person is to conduct a meeting via satellite (such as on a television news program) or over the Internet (such as in a video conferencing context). Video conferencing can enhance collaboration and allow participants to connect with one another on a personal level, without requiring the participants to be present in the same location. With computer systems equipped with digital modems, digital video cameras, microphones, speakers, and the like, users at different locations can participate in a video conference in which conference participants can see and hear each other as they discuss various topics. In theory, video conferencing can provide significant cost and time savings for conference participants when compared with traditional meetings, and can allow collaboration between individuals who would not be able to meet in person due to scheduling conflicts or travel restrictions.
However, such meetings still have many drawbacks, independent of the traditional requirement that participants be in the same location. For example, live meetings are subject to time constraints. Even if the participants are not required to be in the same location, they must agree to participate on a particular day, at a particular time, and for a particular length of time. Although the burden of travel may be reduced, other factors may still prevent participation by one or more parties at the agreed-upon time. If a participant joins the meeting late or leaves the meeting early, or if early parts of the discussion take longer than expected, some topics may need to be allotted less time or omitted entirely. As another example, a live meeting requires an uninterrupted communication channel. A loss of connectivity between participants, even for a short time, can severely disrupt the meeting and reduce the available time in which the meeting can be conducted. These drawbacks are multiplied when more than two people are participating. Existing video conference tools can be used to conduct video interviews but are typically focused on providing approximations of in-person conversations, which tend to be disorganized, difficult to schedule, and difficult to analyze objectively. As a result, video conferences have many of the same limitations that in-person conversations do.